Manning

Manning is the process of getting the hawk used to you and helping her learn to trust you. It never ends, although the basics can be achieved quite quickly with Harris Hawks. Over the past week, I've taken Lady M and Cassius to a charity event at the Sportsman's Inn, on Exmoor.  They flew in front of a small crowd and had no problems with landing on the fists of people in the crowd ( in exchange for a small piece of meat!).  A few days after that we went to the High Bullen Hotel and golf course, in Chittlehamholt, Devon,   where a film crew spent twenty minutes recording the hawks flying to and from guests as part of a promotional video.  Today, we were at the North Devon Wildlife Trust event in central Barnstaple.  We were there all day and must have had several hundred people come up to the hawks, admire them  and ask questions about them and the Hawk-Walks  (www.NorthDevonHawkWalks.co.uk).

Lady M  took it all in her stride because she's done lots of this sort of thing before. The Samba band didn't bother her, neither did the stilt walkers, or the crowds.  Cassius got a little anxious at times, so went back into his travelling box for a rest.  The boxes are dark, he felt secure in there and was able to rest undisturbed. It was a very good experience for him and as he has been exposed, in a safe and controlled way, to a lot of new experiences it will help him become more and more confident and bomb-proof.   The thing is, the hawks believe that any new and unpleasant experience is the fault of the falconer.  After all, it's the falconer who is making them experience it. So the whole manning process needs to be done slowly and gently.  As I say, it never ends.